MANILA, 1 August 2003 — Five-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist John Baylon will stand at the forefront of the Philippine judo team’s campaign in the this year’s Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi on Dec. 5-13.

Also expected to form the national team are 2001 Kuala Lumpur SEAG silver medalist Aristotle Lucero (66 kg.) and bronze medalist Sidney Schwarzkofp (90 kg.) and 2002 SEA Judo Championships silver medalist Gilbert Ramirez.

Daniel Pedro (60 kg.) and Alquader Ekong (100 kg) will compete in next month’s Vietnam Invitationals, which the Philippine Amateur Judo Association (PAJA) is using as qualifying tournament for selecting the other members of the SEAG-bound team. The 38-year-old Baylon, a veteran of four Asian Games, is confident of winning his sixth straight gold and second straight in the 81 kg. class. He participated in the 78 kg. category in 1991, 1993 and 1995, and 71 kg. division in 1997. Judo was scrapped in the 1999 Brunei Games.

Baylon captured the 81 kg. bronze medal in the World Masters Championships in Tokyo recently.

RP Sending 484 Athletes in Vietnam SEAG

The Philippines will send as many as 484 athletes to the Hanoi Southeast Asian Games, the country’s biggest in the last three stagings of the regional competition.

This figure was reached after the SEAG Task Force, which had already approved 379 athletes for outright inclusion to the national roster, decided to place 105 aspirants on the “conditional list” during its marathon meeting to finalize the size of the Philippine delegation in the Dec. 5-13 games in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Task Force chair Steve Hontiveros said the large delegation was a result of the addition of more team events and categories in the Vietnam Games, which the country hopes to use as springboard for the 2005 Philippine SEA Games. The Task Force has yet to decide on the number of coaches and officials although Hontiveros had already announced that only those who really need to be in Vietnam will be included in the delegation. The usual ratio is one official to two athletes.

The athletics bets will be known only in September after competing in the Asian championships slated in Manila. Under the criteria of at least a silver medal in the last SEAG, the association is entitled to nominate 30 athletes, although athletics chief Go Teng Kok had said this number would be eventually pruned to about 20.

Hontiveros said basketball failed to submit the 12-member lineup of the men’s and women’s teams. Basketball Association of the Philippines secretary general Graham Lim said the other day the coaching staff has yet to finalize the roster of the two squads. Men’s football was given until the end of August to make true its promise to bring in seven Fil-foreign players said to be 20 years and younger and who intend to play for the country until the 2005 Games. In the case of swimming, association president Chito Ilagan said he has two more swimmers now competing in the world championships in Barcelona, Spain, who can still qualify for the Games.

Buhain Meets NSAs Officials

Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman Eric Buhain called his two-day fellowship meeting with the national sports associations (NSAs) a success as the participants agreed to set their resources towards one common goal — the 2003 Southeast Asian Games.

“It was very positive,” Buhain said after wrapping up his forum with 35 NSAs. “As we intended, there was greater understanding between the PSC and the NSAs.”

The meeting was set to allow the PSC to give the NSAs a better view of the government’s financial status and, at the same time, give the latter the forum to follow up on their pending requests and air other grievances. Citing the government’s financial limitations, the PSC asked the NSAs to prioritize SEA Games-related matters in their requests to the agency.

And the NSAs heeded Buhain’s call.

“It (PSC’s request) was overwhelmingly accepted by the NSAs. They now understand the present financial situation of the PSC and promised to cooperate in our effort to focus our resources on the forthcoming SEA Games first,” he said. The SEA Games campaign is expected to cost over 35 million pesos with a big delegation looming. The government is projected to spend 70,000 pesos for the trip of a delegate in the Dec. 5-13 Games.